Home is where the heart is
by Vaenz
Summary: Roxas made a promise. And Axel is determined to make sure Roxas doesn't forget it. Fluff, AkuRoku. Read and Review! :D


I was going through all my old documents and found this, so I decided to post it. Complete fluff with a gooey centre made of sweetness.

Read and enjoy, and hopefully, review :D**  
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**Home is where the Heart is**

"_Roxas…I'm so sorry this had to happen this way." Axel said, smiling softly up at me. Tears fell down my cheeks dripping onto the floor. "Please don't cry Roxy…" Axel sighed, whipping the tears from my cheeks. He let his hand fall back down to the ground. "You know Roxas…you made me feel like I actually had a heart." He laughed softly, his breathing getting shallower._

"_We'll meet again in the next life, right?" I asked my voice breaking._

_Axel just smiled, his eyes sad. "Sure." _

_I nodded slowly and closed my eyes. My whole world was sitting before me, fading away into nothing. And there was nothing I could do but watch. I opened my eyes and gazed into Axel's emerald green eyes for what I thought would be the last time. If only I could tell him what I really thought, but there wasn't enough time. Time was fading fast and so was Axel._

"_Axel, there is something I have to tell you-" I started to say, but he cut me off placing a finger to my lips._

"_Don't ever forget me Roxas, okay?" Axel coughed out, caressing my cheek ever so gently. I felt his hand to start to slip away from my cheek and I tried to grab onto his hand to stop it from falling, but Axel's hand just slipped from my grasp._

"_Wait! Axel, there is something I need to tell you!" I said quickly, but it was too late. Axel had already faded away into nothing. Tears began welling up and spilling over my cheeks once more. _

"_Axel, I love you…." I whispered. _

I felt a something warm travel down my cheek. Reaching up, I wiped away a tear that had rolled out of my eye. Why am I crying? I frowned slightly, trying to remember what my dream was about. All I could remember was that there was something I needed to remember…which of course, I had forgotten. Sitting up, I yawned loudly and stretched, looking out my window. Today's the day of the Struggle Tournament. I promised Hayner yesterday that we would both make it into the finals, so that whoever won got the prize and we could all share it between us. Hayner, Pence and Olette my best friends since…forever. But why do I feel so uneasy about today? And why did I wake up crying? I could feel overwhelming dread pass over me and sit above me like a nasty storm cloud. Sighing, I quickly got dressed and left my apartment, heading to the hang out. We said to all meet here then to go to the struggle tournament. Reaching the hang out, I checked to see if anyone was around. Nothing.

"Roxas!" Olette called, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Are you coming or not? You're going to miss the match!"

"Yeah I'm coming…" I sighed, running after Olette to the square where the Struggle tournament was being held. I'm not even excited about the Struggle tournament like I was yesterday. I don't know, I guess I'm just kind of out of it today or something. I forced a grin onto my lips and went to listen to the rules with the other struggle champions. Hayner raised an eyebrow at my lateness, but didn't comment. After a quick brief of the rules, which took about 10 minutes when all it needs to be is 3 words; 'Don't kill anyone'. I looked around me and walked up onto the battle platform. Everything looks the same as normal…except why does it look different somehow? I looked for my friends familiar faces. Even my friends look different, like I'm seeing them for the first time. Why does no one else seem to notice anything strange?

"Ready for our match Roxas?" Hayner asked, grinning at me. I nodded weakly. "Come on man, don't go chicken on me now! I won't hold back, ya hear?"

I nodded again, more strongly this time. I'm not going to let some silly dream and my eyes which are playing tricks on me to ruin my fun. This is my chance to win the struggle tournament and become the champion! Pushing all my dark and confusing thoughts to the back of my mind, I face Hayner, ready to fight.

"Ready! SET! FIGHT!" The audience screamed and cheered as me and Hayner began our battle. Rushing forward to Hayner, I started attacking him, using as much force as I could. Unluckily, Hayner managed to block all my blows and countered, breaking through my defences and sending me flying backwards. Standing back up, I rushed him once more and brought my weapon up underneath his, and in Hayner's attempt to get his weapon free, I swung my weapon up and managed to hit him, sending him a few paces back. He grinned at me and raised his weapon and started to run towards me. And then stopped. As a matter of fact, everything stopped. The crowd cheering us on, even the struggle tournament banners stopped flapping in the wind.

"Huh?" I said aloud, looking around at the now frozen world. This was all too weird for me. Maybe I'm still dreaming. Is it possible to dream a dream inside of a dream? Suddenly I heard someone clapping from behind me.

"Well done Roxas, fight, fight, fight!" A husky voice that sounded vaguely familiar said from behind me. I span around to find a spiky red head smiling at me. His emerald eyes looked into mine…with sadness? I'm so confused right now… and I swear there was something I needed to remember.

"H-how do y-you know my name?" I asked the stranger, who just grinned at me sadly.

"You broke my promise Roxas…_don't ever forget me…_ I'm surprised I actually feel sad about it… I'm not meant to have a heart. Then again…neither are you." The stranger said, his eyes the only things giving away his true feelings. Hurt, lost, sadness. All this strange feelings directed at me…and I have no idea what's going on.

"There was…something I had to tell you…" I mumbled, my voice trailing off. I thought hard. What did I need to remember? It was something really important…

Suddenly, the frozen world around me started to waver.

"I guess that's my queue to leave Roxas." The red head said sadly, walking closer to me. The frozen world around me began to waver even more, and the red head stopped walking towards me. He sighed.

"Goodbye Roxas…"

"Wait! Your Axel, right-" I started to say, but it was too late.

The world around me stopped wavering and went back to normal, and Hayner was sitting on the ground, defeated.

"Haha, well done Roxas! You beat me man! You better beat Seifer and bring home that trophy for us, ya hear?" Hayner said, grinning as he stood back up.

"What just happened?" I asked quietly.

Hayner looked at me in confusion. "You just won the match man…wow, you're so out of it today Roxas…" he said, leaving the battle platform. Seifer climbed up and I readied myself for my last fight. If I won this, I would become the new struggle champion.

~o0o~

"Wow Roxas! You beat Seifer! You're the new champion!" Olette said, smiling happily. "I knew either you or Hayner would win." Hayner grinned at me and Pence came up behind us hold four sticks of ice cream. Sea salt ice cream… my most absolute favourite ice cream in the world. Pence handed the ice creams around.

"To us!" Pence toasted, holding his ice cream up towards the sky.

Hayner laughed and put his ice cream up the sky. "To us."

Olette giggled. "To us!" She said raising her ice cream up.

Smiling slightly, I held my ice cream up to the sky as well. "To us…" I sighed.

It was just getting to sunset in Twilight Town when I left Hayner, Pence and Olette. Walking up to the Clock Tower, I reached the edge and sat down, watching the sun slowly set, bathing everything in a soft orange red glow. I sighed. Today didn't make any sense…first the dream, then everything freezing, then that guy…the red head.

"Axel…" I said quietly. If only I could talk to him. I couldn't remember much, but all I did know is that I needed to tell him something important. "Axel, I wish you were here right now… then I would be able to remember what I was supposed to tell you…"

"So you do remember who I am, huh?" A voice said quietly from behind me. I spun around and there he was… Axel. He was leaning against the Clock Tower wall, his arms folded over his chest and looking out into the sunset.

"Axel?" I asked again, not sure if he was real or just a fragment of my imagination.

He looked at me, a tender, sad smile upon his lips. "You really don't remember anything, do you?" Slowly he walked over to me. I shook me head slightly.

"All I can remember is your name…Axel." I grew nervous as Axel walked closer to me. He sat down next to me, and I stared into his deep emerald green eyes. Slowly his face came closer to mine, so he was no more than a centimetre away. A light blush crept up over my cheeks. Axel's hot breath sent a shiver down my spine as he looked deep into my eyes. I closed my eyes, then opened them again. I thought back and tried to remember everything that had happened, but the closeness of Axel's face was making it hard for me to think straight. I left out a shuddery breath. Axel smiled at me, closed the tiny gap between us.

As soon as our lips touched, I felt as if this was right –like the pieces of a puzzle finally coming together. Axel gently kissed my lips, and I found myself kissing him back. Lost in the moment, I slowly wrapped my arms around Axel's neck, pulling him closer to me. He smelt like cinnamon and honey, mixed together and as our kiss slowly deepened, I remembered _everything. _Everything suddenly just came flooding back. Sighing, I pulled away from Axel and stared into his emerald green eyes again.

"Jeez Axel, I never thought you swang this way." I said, grinning. Axel's eyes widened in shock.

"So really do remember me!" He exclaimed. I smiled and hugged him closer to me, hiding my face into his neck.

"I remember what I wanted to tell you." I said, kissing his neck softly.

"Oh, and what's that?" Axel asked, using one hand to bring my chin up so I could only see into his mesmerizing eyes.

"I love you." I said softly, tilting my head up and capturing Axel's lips with my own. The sun continued to slowly set, bathing everything into a red-gold colour. Finally, I was home.


End file.
